Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
by SmileyMiley
Summary: The gang celebrates their first Christmas at Gabriella's house. Mainly Troyella. Fluff.


**_A/N: Merry Christmas, Banenners!_**

Gabriella wrestled with her thick, dark hair as she tried to force it into a braid on Christmas Eve. Knowing she'd spend the whole day hanging out with her friends, she wanted her hair out of her face, but she missed how short it had been in the summertime. Glancing in the mirror, she noticed the braid was slightly off-center, but she rolled her eyes and ran out of her room as the doorbell rang, not wanting to pull it out and try again.

Kelsi Nielsen stood at the door, barely able to hold the seven presents she had in her arms. As she stepped inside the door, a few on the top fell directly into Gabriella's waiting arms. Both girls started laughing as they went over to the Christmas tree where seven presents were already laid out with an empty space for an eighth, as Gabriella hadn't put out a present for herself: Troy, Taylor, Chad, Zeke, Ryan, Martha, Kelsi, and the empty space where Kelsi set Gabriella's present. The whole gang (minus Sharpay, who still didn't really want to "associate" with the others, and Jason, who'd moved away just before senior year started) had decided to spend Christmas Eve together and open presents at Gabriella's house.

People kept showing up, each one with arms overflowing with presents. After depositing them on the floor, they'd pick a spot on the floor or couch, decide on what movie they wanted to watch later (Christmas Vacation, The Christmas Story, or White Christmas), and then just sit around and talk. When everyone had finally gotten there, Gabriella held up a piece of paper that she'd tallied everyone's votes on. Glancing at it, a smile found its way onto her face.

"Okay everyone," she said, "We've got the votes down now. There's one for Christmas Story, two for Christmas Vacation, and five for White Christmas." Troy, Zeke, and Chad groaned, telling everyone exactly who hadn't voted for the musical. Feeling sorry for them, Gabriella said, "We'll watch the movie later, maybe when we're opening presents, so they don't have to watch it if they don't want to. Right now, how about we play CatchPhrase?" A chorus of cheers answered her as everyone tried to figure out who was on their team. The teams ended up both being two girls and two boys: Kelsi, Gabriella, Ryan, and Chad were one team, and Troy, Zeke, Taylor, and Martha were the other. Kelsi yanked the game off the crowded bookshelf. She looked around the group and chose the Science and Technology category, knowing that the only ones who'd probably get the answers were Taylor and Gabriella. Hitting the start button, she started the game.

It went on for a while without many guesses from anyone except Taylor and Gabriella. Finally, Troy sent a pleading glance at Gabriella, asking with his eyes, "Can we please do something else??" She looked around, trying to decide what to do. Everyone else seemed a bit annoyed that she and Taylor were getting most of the right answers and no one else was really getting a chance. Holding up her hand to Kelsi, who was about to start another round (looking frustrated that she'd chose such a bad category), Gabriella pointed to the kitchen.

"We might play this again later, but right now, who wants to make cookies?" she asked. Everyone jumped up immediately, and Troy shot her a grateful look. Everyone raced into the kitchen, where Gabriella's mom had set out a bunch of things for cookies. Kelsi set herself up near the mixing bowl, Gabriella grabbed the cookbook before Chad could, and, pouting, he joined the others around the kitchen, waiting for Gabriella to tell them how much of each ingredient to give to Kelsi.

Everything went fine until someone accidentally moved the bag of flour near a busy Ryan, who was climbing on the counter to grab a measuring cup that hadn't been brought out earlier. As he climbed down, his knee knocked the bag over. Martha suddenly found herself nearly covered in flour. Laughing, she picked up a handful from the mound on the floor and threw it at Chad, who immediately picked up some of his own and threw it at Troy. Suddenly the kitchen looked like a huge snowstorm had exploded in the middle of it, and all eight people were covered in flour. Troy made his way over the gritty floor to Gabriella and kissed her flour-covered nose.

"We should do this every year," he told her. Laughing, she agreed. Looking out over the kitchen, she watched Ryan and Chad throwing flour at each other, Kelsi and Taylor trying to get out of the flour but getting caught in everyone else's crossfire…smiling and giggling, she made her way over to Chad and Ryan, knowing that she'd end up with even more flour everywhere. Grabbing each of their wrists, she forced them gently to stop throwing flour. Turning around, she pointed out where rags, towels, and the mop where.

Because of the flour incident, there were no cookies for anyone that night. After cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, they all settled in to open their presents. Each person had seven presents, one from each of their friends. After a flurry of wrapping paper and happy gasps, everyone sat with a mound of things that described them floating around. Kelsi had new sheet music, Gabriella and Taylor both had new books…their friends had figured everyone out perfectly.

When Gabriella's mom finally got home around seven, she found them all in the living room still, watching a non-Christmas movie because they'd figured out that all of Gabriella's Christmas movies were mysteriously missing. Gabriella had fallen asleep on the couch with her head on Troy's shoulder. Even though she felt a bit protective at the moment, Ms. Montez just tiptoed past the living room and upstairs.

People started to leave before the movie was even over, each person getting up as they noticed their sleeping hostess and the minivan out front. Finally, it was just Troy and Gabriella left in the living room. Turning off the movie, Troy gently laid Gabriella's head down on a couch pillow and covered her with a blanket. Hastily scribbling a note, he taped it to the TV, where he was sure she'd see it. Kissing her, he packed up his gifts and left, glad he had his own truck with him.

The next morning, a still-sleepy Gabriella woke up in the living room. Immediately noticing the absence of her friends, she glanced around and noticed Troy's note. Reading it, she smiled and opened up the book she'd gotten from Troy. A small picture frame fell out. Picking it up, she recognized it as a picture of their first kiss. Turning it over in her hands, she noticed an engraving on the back. Running her fingers over it, she held it up to her face to read it. Her smile widened as she realized it was the first time he'd said it. _I love you, Gabriella Montez._


End file.
